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Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson
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Mysterium (1994)

by Robert Charles Wilson

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4331057,352 (3.56)13
In a top-secret government installation near the small town of Two Rivers, Michigan, scientists are investigating a mysterious object discovered several years earlier. Late one evening, the local residents observe strange lights coming from the laboratory. The next morning, they awake to find that their town was literally cut off from the rest of the world...and thrust into a new one Soon the town is discovered by the bewildered leaders of this new world--at which point, the people of Two Rivers realize that they've arrived in a rigid theocracy. The authorities, known as the Bureau de la Covenance Religieuse, have ordered Linneth Stone, a young ethnologist, to analyze the arrivals and report her findings to the Lieutenant in charge. What Linneth finds will challenge the philosophical basis of her society and lead inexorably to a struggle for power centering on the mysterious object that Two Rivers' government scientists were studying when the town slipped between worlds. In "Mysterium," Robert Charles Wilson "blends science, religion, philosophy and alternate history into an intelligent, compelling work of fiction" ("Publishers Weekly").At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.… (more)
Member:SimoneA
Title:Mysterium
Authors:Robert Charles Wilson
Info:
Collections:All reads, E-books
Rating:***1/2
Tags:1994, fiction, *science fiction, read 2011

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Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson (1994)

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» See also 13 mentions

English (9)  French (1)  All languages (10)
Showing 1-5 of 9 (next | show all)
Very interesting parallel universe story. ( )
  EZLivin | Jul 4, 2023 |
Wilson's novels generally foreground the concerns of ordinary people against some vast backdrop of space and time, a common SF move which Wilson does uncommonly well.

Two Rivers, a small town in Michigan, is zapped into a different timeline by experiments at a nearby government facility. Roads and power lines are cut off by trackless wilderness at the town's edge. Soon the town is occupied by the theocratic dictatorship that rules much of North America in the new timeline. The new world and ours seem to have diverged in the early Christian era; there, gnostic Christianity became the dominant religious strain. The town's new rulers, the Proctors of the Bureau de la Convenance Religieuse, find the ideas held by the residents of Two Rivers to be disturbingly heretical and in need of eradication. Their solution: books from the town's libraries have advanced the Bureau's nuclear-weapons program marvelously, and a test site for the new bomb will be needed. Meanwhile the timeline-jumping experiment is still active, covering the facility in a blue dome of deadly radiation.

Wilson's people include: Alan Stern, the genius physicist behind the experiment, who was on site and is presumed dead, Dexter Graham, a history teacher at the high school, Evelyn Woodward, a bed & breakfast operator, Howard Poole, the sole surviving scientist from the research facility, and Clifford Stockton, an inquisitive 12 year old. From the new world, Linneth Stone is a comparative ethnologist at Sethian College in Boston; she is drafted to help understand the very peculiar population that has turned up in the upper midwest. Lieutenant Demarch is the Proctor assigned the task of disposing of the town. The story brings out the interiority and complexity of each.

For the reader of alternate history, an obvious question arises. If the two worlds diverged in the second century CE, how can the Proctors speak versions of English and French comprehensible to the Two Rivers people? Wilson has an answer, relating to the process that led the town to this particular world.

A quick, thoughtful read. ( )
  dukedom_enough | Jan 6, 2020 |
Il y a essentiellement deux sortes de science fiction : la futuriste et l'uchronique. Wilson appartient à la deuxième et plus précisément au genre du "[b:formidable événement|141244|Le Formidable événement|Maurice Leblanc|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172121706s/141244.jpg|136217]". Ici, l'explosion d'un artefact archéologique qui ne peut exister transplante un disque autour d'une petite ville américaine dans un autre monde. Un événement trop important pour qu'on puisse réparer et revenir en arrière. Donc il faut s'adapter, se cacher, combattre...

Mysterium marche plutôt bien. Ce nouveau monde issu d'un branchement de l'histoire il y a deux millénaires est plutôt intéressant. Bref, ce livre se laisse lire sans problème et éclaire différemment l'histoire de notre univers. ( )
  miloshth | Sep 7, 2019 |
Robert Charles Wilson's SF novels are based around scenarios where a fundamental aspect of reality is changed and charts the reactions of victims and observers to that change, whether that be the disappearance of an entire continent, or Earth being cutting off by a membrane causing the stars to disappear from sight. In this novel, following a bizarre accident at a secret research centre, an entire town in Michigan, Two Rivers, is transported to the equivalent spot and the same time in a parallel dimension where technology is more primitive, but a different form of Christianity holds sway, and women and racial minorities are oppressed - though these aspects are incidental to the plot and only mentioned briefly. In the end, having taken the town over to find out its advanced technological secrets, the authorities in the parallel world decide on a drastic solution to the anomaly that has arrived in their midst. There are a mixed bunch of characters on both sides, and new alliances form as the final fate of the town becomes clearer. A quick and mostly engaging read - there were a few info dumps, though less often than in Spin. ( )
  john257hopper | May 20, 2019 |
Big idea story that was just a little too far out there ... too woo woo for the big idea. Several important elements of the story seemed underdeveloped. For me, the central mystery remains a mystery. A very interesting character story buried in here amongst the religious fascists. I liked that part of the book a lot and became invested in the characters. But a pall hangs over the entire book as it is clear that the nazi-like theocrats have a final solution planned.

I thought this was a new book when I bought it but it was a re-release of a 1994 novel. ( )
  RBeffa | Aug 6, 2017 |
Showing 1-5 of 9 (next | show all)
An alien artifact transports the small town of Two Rivers, Michigan, to an alternate universe, where political repression is the order of the day and survival an ever-growing concern. The latest novel by the author of The Harvest ( LJ 11/15/92) and The Bridge of Years ( LJ 8/91) offers a study in culture shock as simple people find their values and their future irrevocably redefined. Wilson is a graceful storyteller who relies on the power of his characters to convey the underlying messages of his tale.
added by cmwilson101 | editLibrary Journal
 
The residents of Two Rivers, Mich., wake up one morning to find themselves in a changed world. The entire town and the top-secret government research facility that was located near it have been blasted into a parallel world. Their own history has been erased and they are faced instead with a repressive government controlled by a powerful church that professes a version of Gnostic Christianity. The governing Proctors plunder the town for information, gaining the knowledge to build an atomic bomb; to prevent the contagion of ideas, Two Rivers is designated as the first test site. A few residents--history teacher Dex Graham, physicist Howard Poole, along with Linneth Stone, a cultural researcher sent from the outside to study these "aliens"--slowly piece together the events that brought them to this strange universe and begin to fight against the forces that now control them. The solution lies in a mysterious fragment found in a Middle Eastern desert that turns out to be part of a "wormhole boat," a device for traveling between parallel worlds that physicist Alan Stern came upon and piloted as he took the town of Two Rivers with him into a world that echoed his own obsessions. Wilson ( The Harvest ) blends science, religion, philosophy and alternate history into an intelligent, compelling work of fiction.
added by cmwilson101 | editPublishers Weekly
 

» Add other authors (3 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Wilson, Robert Charlesprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Wood, RonCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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for Jo: parallel worlds
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On a dry inland plain, under a sky the color of agate, a handful of Americans scuffed at a rubble of ancient clay masonry. (Before)
Dex Graham woke with the sun in his eyes and the weave of Evelyn Woodward's bedroom carpet printed on the side of his face. (Chapter One)
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Attention, en France, Mysterium est le nom de deux ouvrages de Robert Charles Wilson : le roman Mysterium édité par J'ai lu puis réédité en Folio SF, et le recueil Mysteriem, édité par Denoël en collection Lunes d'encre, qui contient le roman Mysterium ainsi que les nouvelles La Cabane de l'aiguilleur (A Hidden place), Le Mariage de la Dryade (The Dryad's Wedding), Le Grand adieu (The Great Goodbye), Les Affinités (The Affinities), Le Théâtre cartésien (The Cartesian Theater), YFL-500 (YFL-500) et Julian : un conte de Noël (Julian : A Christmas Story).
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In a top-secret government installation near the small town of Two Rivers, Michigan, scientists are investigating a mysterious object discovered several years earlier. Late one evening, the local residents observe strange lights coming from the laboratory. The next morning, they awake to find that their town was literally cut off from the rest of the world...and thrust into a new one Soon the town is discovered by the bewildered leaders of this new world--at which point, the people of Two Rivers realize that they've arrived in a rigid theocracy. The authorities, known as the Bureau de la Covenance Religieuse, have ordered Linneth Stone, a young ethnologist, to analyze the arrivals and report her findings to the Lieutenant in charge. What Linneth finds will challenge the philosophical basis of her society and lead inexorably to a struggle for power centering on the mysterious object that Two Rivers' government scientists were studying when the town slipped between worlds. In "Mysterium," Robert Charles Wilson "blends science, religion, philosophy and alternate history into an intelligent, compelling work of fiction" ("Publishers Weekly").At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

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